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Opinion: Religious America

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How well does the new study on religious identity in the United States really describe us? At first glance, you’d think we’re a bunch of liturgical wobblers, unable to stick with a conviction. Forty-four percent have either switched religious affiliations, or dropped them.

But the survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life counts movements within Christianity a switch. Say, for example, a Baptist joins a nondenominational Christian church, this is a change in religion, according to the survey. Once that kind of switch is removed from the survey, the numbers drop way down.

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It seems quite possible that these definitions of one church or another meant more in the world of formal structures than they ever meant to Americans. It hardly means a wholesale conversion.

Worth noting: Californians are more likely to be unaffiliated with any religion than the nation as a whole.

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